Ohtani and Bauers Hit for the Cycle on Two Consecutive Days

I used to think that hitting for the cycle--hitting a single, double, triple, and home run in one game--was a meaningless stat. I suppose that it is in the grand scheme of things.

But to accomplish it, you have to possess power and speed as well as be a generally disciplined hitter.

On June 13, pitcher/hitter phenom Shohei Ohtani hit for the cycle for the Los Angeles Angels, becoming the first Japanese-born major leaguer to accomplish the feat.



Jake Bauers matched the accomplishment for Cleveland yesterday, doing so in probably more dramatic fashion by hitting a homer to complete the cycle. Ohtani began his hitting barrage with a home run. (To me, in some ways, a triple is a harder hit to make. But that's an academic discussion for baseball nerds, I suppose.)

Go Cavs...but the NBA drives me crazy

Posted this on Facebook this morning (this is a slightly edited form):

The Cavaliers competing in the play-offs and finals has caused me to do something I haven't done in over thirty years: Watch more than just clips of NBA games. 

I've actually watched about ten minutes of live action in the past three weeks! 

Really happy for Cleveland and for Ohio, of course. That's why I've looked in on the games. 

But I love basketball, which is why I don't usually watch the NBA. These recent brief look-ins have reminded me of why. A defender, for example, almost has to set off grenades in the uniforms of an opposition player to draw a foul.  

Basketball is supposed to be a non-contact sport.  

I can understand occasional hand-checks.  

Or brushes and hard stops on pick and rolls.  

But not wrapping arms around opposing players.  

Not armlocks.  

Not barely noted intentional elbows to skulls, resulting in an opposing player's head crashing to the hardwood. 

I don't like any of this and hate how, through emulation, it has infected the college game too. But the NCAA is not yet as bad as the Not Basketball Association. 

Go, Cavs!

Saturday This and That

Things that caught my eye this past week.

Minnesota's last one-room school house...
...and the woman who's been through a lot who keeps it going. Be sure to read the article and watch the accompanying video.

They may or may not be "tragic" reasons as the article is titled...
...but this lengthy piece gives five plausible explanations as to why the world's largest theme park is abandoned.

The silencing of the American college...
...is free speech taking a hit on America's campuses?

And a self-described "liberal professor"...
...identifies similar concerns.

How a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist built a Facebook community...
...from Cleveland.

Art is created in many ways...
I remember reading Charlie Chaplin's autobiography many years ago. Included was a picture of him dressed as his famous Tramp character, standing on an incomplete movie set, with a caption that said something like, "Building a set without an idea in my head." Chaplin improvised his way through what became a classic.

Chaplin didn't always create like this, as the meticulous scripts for some of his talkies show.

The fact that Chaplin was capable both of improvising like a jazz musician or meticulously planning his work testifies to his greatness as an artist. He could do it all, including musical composition.



This article from Open Culture shows us the elaborate outlines of J.K, Rowling for a portion of her fifth Harry Potter book.

The moral: Compelling art is the result of careful planning. Except when it isn't.

(You can click to enlarge the image below.)

$8.5-trillion isn't chump change...
...and that's how much of our money that the Defense Department can't account for since 1996. With Murray Blum, it makes you wonder, "Who does these books?"

LeBron James and Going Home

"My relationship with northeast Ohio goes beyond basketball. I didn't realize that four years ago. I do now."

That's part of LeBron James' explanation of his decision to go back to Cleveland. It reminds me of the old saying, "You don't know what you've got till you lose it."

That feeling can come to any of us. But not everyone gets the chance to return to the place or the people that constitute "home" for them. James has gotten that chance. Good for him!

(As a lifelong Ohioan, I understand how this place gets under one's skin. I'm very glad to live here.)

Great Profile of a Cleveland Artist...

who does amazing things with an Etch-a-Sktech. Don't laugh!